“I ran a couple of searches. The chances were good that Angela hadn’t changed her first name, most people on the run don’t. With that in mind, I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell that she would have used a fake name when talking about her dead son. So, I plugged in the name Angela with a dead child named Richard. Unfortunately, I got more hits than I wanted to see.”
Law felt Jill stiffen beside him. He felt the same way. It was heartbreaking to think of all the children who had died.
“I realized my fuckup at midnight—I hadn’t narrowed it down to Michigan, since the guy who visited Lesley said he was from there. That’s when I got a hit that fit. In Detroit, a toddler died, and the mother went missing. It even made the papers. An Angela Goshen was wanted for questioning in the beginning, then it died down.”
“Angela couldn’t have possibly hurt her son,” Jill said vehemently.
“You’re right, she didn’t. He died while he was under his father’s care. It was a tragic accident. But her leaving made it suspicious. I should have something this afternoon,” Kane said.
“What do you mean it made it suspicious? I know Angela, she loved her baby. She was devastated over her son dying.” Jill leaned forward into the monitor. “I don’t know why she left Michigan, but she had a reason, and it wasn’t because she had anything to do with his death.” Law tugged her closer.
“We believe you, Honey,” Law assured her.
“There is definitely something fishy,” Asher said soothingly.
“You’re Law’s brother,” Jill said. “You’re on my side. What about him?” She pointed at Kane.
Kane threw up his hands in defense. “Hey, I’m on your side, too. I’m just trying to put this puzzle together.”
Jill relaxed a little bit and leaned against Law.
“What did the papers say?” Law asked.
“Angela was out of town and arrived home from the airport to find the cops at her house on a hot day in August. Her husband Tim, a lawyer in his dad’s bigshot law firm, had left their son in the back of his car when he went inside the house.”
Jill gasped. “Oh my God, how could you ever forgive yourself after something like that?”
“Then Angela ran away?” Cullen Lyons asked from the other side of Asher.
“She disappeared later that night. When she first got home and realized her baby had died, she collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital. They needed to keep her overnight. By all accounts, she was a mess and needed care. But sometime in the middle of the night at the hospital, she just disappeared.”
“Did someone take her?” Jill asked.
“No,” Kane answered. “It happened about an hour after her husband came and visited her. She put on her clothes, took her purse, and walked out. The security cameras caught her walking down the city block and turning the corner.”
“Has her husband been looking for her?” Law asked.
“To begin with, he did. He made a big deal about it, hired a well-known detective agency and even offered a reward. Then the papers got a hold of it. There was speculation about the family, that something was really wrong, what with the baby dying and the mother missing all within twenty-four hours. Before it made national news, his family stepped in and announced that Angela had gone to stay with some distant relatives. After that, things died down.”
“That just so isn’t true. She was living hand-to-mouth as a maid. Now that I know the kind of life she left behind, she was clearly on the run,” Jill told the others.
“Or, she could have been so devastated by losing her baby, that she just had to start over, even if it was hand-to-mouth. Grief can do strange things to a person,” Cullen said sadly.
Jill let out a small whimper and nodded.
“Maybe,” Kane said. “But the police started an investigation in Detroit on all of this. I want to get my hands on that file and see what the police had to say. I’ll feel more comfortable after I read that information.”
“For sure, Tim Goshen knew that the press release they gave out was a bunch of bullshit. He knew she hadn’t gone to relatives, she was missing. The detective agency had to have tracked her alias down to California. That led to the grief counseling group, and to you, Jill.” Law said.
“I don’t want to tell him a darn thing. I’m not going to tell him that she went to Arizona,” Jill said emphatically. “If she doesn’t want to tell that man who let her son die where she went, then I’m sure not going to tell him anything.”
“Actually, your friend Angela Smith, aka Goshen, isn’t in Arizona, she’s in Wyoming. Cullen has a buddy who will be talking to her soon, don’t you?” Kane looked over at Cullen.
“Yep,” he said from off-screen.
“How did you find her in Wyoming?” Law demanded to know.
“A month ago, a local doctor in Casper made a request for Angela Goshen’s medical records from her doctor in Michigan.”
“I don’t get it, why would she lie to me about where she was even going?” Jill queried.
“Maybe she didn’t,” Law tried to make Jill feel better. “Maybe she just changed her mind.”
“Cut it out, Thorne.” Kane’s voice was abrupt. “Jill, your friend is definitely running scared and she wasn’t taking any chances that her movements could be traced.”
“But she gave me her cell phone number.”
“But she never answered, did she? Was a personalized message even on the voicemail?” Kane asked.
“No.” Jill’s voice was dejected. Law put his arm around her waist and tucked her in close.
“So,
